Erin and Danny investigate a cold case of a girl who was attacked by her rich and powerful boyfriend, who was never convicted. Meanwhile, Jamie’s friend brings a lawsuit against Danny’s friend after an injury at a pick-up basketball game.

David Hinckley

The best new cop drama of a TV season that has more police than a presidential motorcade. Blue Bloods doesn't have the best time slot on TV, but it's got some of the strongest characters and performances.

Andy Bailey

Blue Bloods excels through its high-tone production values--Sinatra and Alicia Keys on the soundtrack; urban texture memorably captured across multiple boroughs--and standout performances from Selleck and Wahlberg, whose moral ambiguity and thinly veiled powder-keg fury, passed down by lineage, promises to fuel the series through a gripping first season--provided audiences tune in.

Robert Bianco

Ken Tucker

The best thing about Bloods, aside from the return of Selleck to weekly TV, is that it breaks with the nearly 20-year tradition of dark, gritty cop shows ushered in by NYPD Blue. The weakest thing about Bloods is that it can't resist adding a conspiracy story line to its cases-of-the-week structure.

Ginia Bellafante

Rick Porter

What is there in the premiere of Blue Bloods is the aforementioned cast, which also includes Will Estes ("Reunion," "American Dreams") and Len Cariou ("Damages"), and some sharply written and acted scenes between the family members. Those more than make up for a pretty standard-issue case in the premiere.

Ellen Gray

There's nothing earthshaking happening here, but as someone whose extended family includes both lawyers and cops--and a lot of other argumentative types--I felt the family dinner-table conversation rang true, and so did the people. For people who like their family dramas mixed with crime and a bit of conspiracy, it's a solid choice to end the workweek.

Rob Owen

Blue Bloods showcases a surprising amount of character-driven storytelling. The potential police department conspiracy pushes Blue Bloods into more sudsy territory than necessary, but at least this show marks another attempt by CBS, following "The Good Wife" last year, to expand its offerings beyond paint-by-number crime dramas.

Nancy DeWolf Smith

Hearing the opening notes of "New York, New York" and seeing Tom Selleck at the start of the show may hurt some viewers like a retro kick in the gut. Yet by the end of the pilot a new, hip-hoppish version of that old tune cements Blue Bloods in the here and now, even if the here and now is a wee bit squaresville.

Paige Wiser

Dan Fienberg

The weekly cops-and-lawyers procedural aspect of the show was never going to hook me, but I found the pilot's core case, featuring an abducted girl, to be particularly manipulative and uninvolving. I was also irked by the contrivances that would allow Moynahan's character to be handling a case in which her brother was accused of malfeasance. I was much more interested in the multigenerational family stuff that played out.

Maureen Ryan

Blue Bloods sounds good on paper. Yet despite its good cast and competent execution, this drama about a family of New York cops feels a bit perfunctory. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the drama, which is ably headed by Tom Selleck, but there's every chance that Blue Bloods will turn out to be just another cop show.

Mark A. Perigard

Wahlberg, a favorite here, needs to avoid David Caruso Syndrome. There's a bit too much posturing with the furrowed brow and hand-on-the-hip that has made a caricature of that "CSI: Miami" star. Moynahan is solid as the assistant district attorney, but her character's lefty politics seem at odds with her occupation and her family.....But Selleck as the bad guy in his own show? It almost makes you want to dial 911.